Power and assessment: A genealogical analysis of the CLASS

ABSTRACT

The CLASS (classroom assessment scoring system) has become integrally linked with quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) throughout the United States and other international locations. This relationship reinforces the neoliberal consumer-based perspectives of quality and devalues localized perspectives. This article challenges the notion of assessing quality in this manner and provides a genealogical analysis of the literature supporting the CLASS. The analysis focuses on three specific aspects of the CLASS research literature: the type of research used, how school success is defined, and the use of attachment theory in teacher–child relationships. The article also proposes further areas of study and analysis regarding the cultural appropriateness and international use of the assessment as well as questioning the line between research and marketing.

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Contributors

Sonya Gaches is Lecturer in Early Childhood Education at the University of Otago. Her research and teaching interests include teacher narratives of their lived classroom experiences and classroom engagements, how policies affect these experiences and engagements and children's rights, most specifically children's well-being, voice and participation.

Diana Hill is a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona. Diana currently instructs and supports teacher candidates in the CREATE (Community as Resources in Early Education Teacher Education) early childhood program. Her research focus is on developing student-teacher relationships, discourse and affect in relation to students' funds of knowledge.